by Tom Jones
The fox heard the word boat, “Can you take us back by boat?” The Prince shrugged, “It could work. Sealand isn’t too far from the mainland anyways, but you guys would be on your own at that point. Also, your helicopter is still here.” The fox scratched his head, “Hmm… I suppose I’d have to come back for it.” The Prince had a question, “Wait, which one of you flew here in the first place?” Arcades spoke, “I did. I’m a pilot.” The Prince nodded, “I see… However, you do live in America, right?” The fox remembered that he had to leave his base and he lived there, “Right now, I don’t live anywhere. I used to live at my base, but I had to end up leaving it after I discovered that the Omega Foundation was trying to hunt me down. I don’t even know if that place is still standing. All I know is that I can’t go back to it because Omega might be there looking for me.”
The Prince remembered watching the video, “Damn, I heard them talking about that in your video that you recorded.” The fox nodded, “Yes. What do you think the best possible option is?” The Prince thought about potential options that they could take. He asked, “Kurt, you took your stuff with you? How much do you guys have?” Arcades replied, “We only have stuff for me, Jason, and Bobby. We’re kinda all that’s left of Fox Security.” The Prince was surprised to hear this, “Really? What do you mean all that’s left?” The fox spoke, “We used to have around forty something people. However, none of them decided to come with me to take down Omega except for Jason and Bobby.”
The Prince spoke next, “So, out of all of your men, only two decided to stick with you?” The fox nodded as he looked down at the floor, “That’s correct. All of the others decided to leave me.” The Prince continued, “I guess I can see why you need all the help you can get. From what I saw in the video, I don’t really think three anthros stand a chance at taking them down. They had those damn helicopters that I haven’t even seen before. They look kinda like your helicopter, but they’re way too angular.” Arcades knew that the Prince was referencing, “That’s the MH-60X Stealth Hawk. It was developed so DEVGRU could kill Osama Bin Laden during the raid back in 2011. Somehow, Omega obtained the helicopter despite only a limited amount of them ever being produced. Omega either makes them themselves or they have connections that I don’t know about.”
The Prince shrugged, “Save the speculation for later. Right now, we should probably go upon what we can see happening in the video. That reminds me, what exactly is happening? Bobby told me that you knew what Omega is supposed to be doing with the anthros they got in the cells.” The fox spoke, “From what I heard and saw, I believe that the Omega Foundation is capturing anthros in a widespread anthro trafficking operation.” The Prince nodded, “Yes, you told us that when you first got here. What I’m asking is what is supposed to be happening in the cells themselves?” Arcades replied, “Some form of mind control. We actually rescued two of the anthros from one of Omega’s trains.” The Prince remembered Bocchino mentioned a train, “Yeah, Bobby told me about a train that you guys got on. What happened there?”
The fox explained the event in his own words, “I broke into this other Omega facility, and we were able to track where the cargo was going. We flew over to where our signal was pinging, and we saw that it was a train. We boarded the train, and then we gathered what we could. That’s when we got that weapon, the XMP-1. That mission was originally going to be just reconnaissance as we were not planning to take anything with us.” The Prince made an assumption, “So, was it when you noticed that there were anthros on the train, you decided to take the weapon with you?” Arcades nodded in affirmation, “Of course. We couldn’t just leave them there.” The Prince took a peek back at the monitor. The video was now about halfway finished uploading.
“When you rescued the anthros from the train, how did they look? Were they already subject to the mind control that you’re telling me about?” The Prince was becoming increasingly curious. The fox explained, “They did not appear to be visibly hurt, but I dunno if they were hurt in the past by Omega. They could have, but I cannot confirm this; However, they were in the advanced stages of mind control. They wouldn’t refer to themselves by their own names, they wouldn’t use first-person pronouns--” Arcades was cut off by the Prince, “Hold up, they wouldn’t even say words like me or I?” Arcades continued, “Yes. They were pretty far into mind control. They ended up leaving me too.”
The Prince thought about what to say next. He continued, “Shit. Where do you think they are now?” Arcades shrugged, “I have no idea. I dunno if they went back to the Foundation or not. I did tell them that they should make their own choices.” The Prince spoke after the fox finished, “Hold up, you had to tell them to make their own choices?” Arcades nodded, “Yes. They were that far into mind control.” The Prince was almost in disbelief. He had seen the video for himself, but a part of him still wanted to deny the fact that Omega was behind all of this. Bocchino spoke up in case the Prince was still reluctant to trust a fox, “What Kurt is saying is true, Your Highness.” The Prince shook his head once more, “Damn. I know I saw all your evidence. It’s just that you don’t really hear about this everyday.” The fox spoke, “Yes, I understand. I know how you feel.”
Jason was the next to speak, “Kurt, you never told me that about those two.” Arcades turned his attention to the wolf, “Yeah, but what would you have wanted me to say to you?” Arcades waited as Jason was thinking of what to say next. The wolf replied, “Wait, this was right before you went to Utah, wasn’t it?” Arcades nodded, “Yeah. I didn’t really get the chance to actually explain it all to you. I wanted to look into it for myself as soon as possible.” The Prince spoke up once the wolf and the fox finished talking, “If you want, I’ll let you guys bring your stuff here and you can stay here until you complete your mission.”
The fox smiled, “That’s a very generous offer. However, I don’t think we’d need to spend too much time here. If I can just get to CDI and show them the video, then we would be able to rally up and attack Omega directly.” The Prince looked at the upload progress again. The video was 75% uploaded. The Prince said, “Looks like it won’t be too long until they get it. I’ll mirror your video and send it to as many places as I can. You’re right, people need to see the truth.” Arcades smiled, “Thanks a lot. You don’t know how much this helps us out. We might even be able to free all of the anthros from that facility if CDI agrees to help.” The Prince nodded, “Alright. What we can do is that I can drive you to the mainland in my boat. Then, I’ll drive you to CDI.” Arcades nodded, “That would really help us out if you can do that for us.”
The Prince looked back at the computer one last time. The upload was now complete. The Prince spoke, “Oh it’s done. Just in time. Now it’s only a matter of time before people will wake up to realize what Omega has been doing. Others will mirror the video too, and soon the video will be seen all over the world.” Arcades smiled, “Thank you.” Jason spoke, “Kurt, isn’t Omega going to be looking for you?” Arcades shrugged, “They probably are; However, they haven’t found us here, though. We need to make sure that they don’t see me.” The Prince looked at the fox, “Yeah, it would be best if nobody recognized you. However, I can see how that would be a bit of an issue. You’re a black and white fox. You guys don’t typically come in that color pattern. Especially since you still have white fur where a normal red fox does. Most of you black foxes are completely black.”
Arcades looked at the fur on his arms. His arms were completely black. Though some red foxes had black forearms, they typically did not have full black arms like Arcades did. However, Arcades was entirely black except for the white fur that he had on his chest, neck, and belly as part of a typical red fox pattern. The Prince was still curious, “What color were your parents, Kurt?” Arcades replied, “They were both regular red foxes. I just happened to have black fur instead of the reddish orange fur that my parents were.” The Prince continued studying Arcades’ fur color, “Yeah, so is that some sort of genetic effect?” Arca
des nodded, “Yes. It’s a very rare genetic variation. Some other anthros have it too. However, colors like these are more common in feloids than canoids.”
The Prince spoke again wanting to get back to the subject of the mission, “So, when do you guys want to get going with the mission? I’m sure it won’t be long until many people view your video.” Arcades looked out the window, and he viewed the water. The fox said, “I guess we’ll get going whenever you are. Now, when we go back to America. I don’t suppose you would come along?” The Prince chuckled, “Heh, I’m sorry, but I can’t do that. As much as I would like to see this all pay off, I do have a country to run. I’ll stay here and make sure that nobody comes and invades like you guys did.” Arcades smiled in response to the Prince. The Prince stood up, “But, I will give you guys these. Come and follow me.” The three anthros followed the Prince as he led them into a different room. The Prince rummaged through some items before pulling out three PVC flag patches. The patches bore the flag of Sealand on them.
“I’ll let you fly Sealand’s colors if you want,” the Prince said as he held out the patches. Arcades took the patches with a smile, “I guess we’re part of Sealand’s military now? Eh?” The Prince laughed as he joked back, “Haha! I suppose so. You just have to make sure to help me hold the fort against other invaders.” Arcades gave one patch to Jason and another to Bocchino. The three anthros were not wearing clothing that had Velcro to accept the patches, so they all pocketed the patches. Arcades was planning to put the patch on his uniform when he went to retrieve his stuff.
“So, you want to let the world know that Sealand is the country behind the fall of the Omega Foundation?” Arcades asked the Prince. The Prince replied, “Yup. Imagine how that’d look. The world’s smallest nation takes down the world’s largest secret society.” Arcades smiled again. The fox said, “I guess your military is made up of entirely anthros. Ain’t that a first?” The Prince smiled back, “Gotta make history one way or another, mate.” The fox joked again, “I guess you can add that helicopter to Sealand’s aircraft inventory as well.” The Prince then said, “And don’t forget a secret Omega weapons prototype.” The fox realized that he was mentioning the XMP-1. Arcades said, “That thing looks like a freak of nature, huh?” The Prince returned one more joke, “As much as a freak of nature as you anthros are.” Arcades chuckled, “Heh. I guess I could say the same about you humans.”
After the anthros and the human finished joking around, they were now ready to get going. The fox said, “I guess we should get going now? We’re ready when you are.” The Prince nodded, “Yes. We should get going. Come on outside, and I’ll take you to the boat.” The fox followed the Prince as he led them out to the main deck. Bocchino had taken the XMP-1 on his way out. Though the weapon had no munitions, the cat would put it back into the HH-60 before they would leave. He wanted to make sure that the weapon did not get lost. Jason, on the other hand, followed the fox.
Bocchino joined the crew again, and the Prince was working on getting the boat ready to drop into the water. They would board the boat, and then the guard would lower them down onto the water. The Prince was the first to board the boat, followed by Arcades and then Jason. Bocchino finally climbed onto the boat as well, and the Prince checked the engine to make sure that the boat was ready to launch. He cranked the engine after checking the oil, and the boat successfully started. The boat was already connected to the small crane that would lower down the boat onto the water. The Prince said, “Now, I’m a fisherman normally, but I don’t think I’ve ever shared a boat with anthros before.” Arcades smiled, “I guess that now you can say that you’ve shared a boat with anthros.”
The Prince gave the signal to the guard, and the guard began to lower the boat down to the water. As the boat was lowering, the Prince jokingly said, “I hope this is free service. You are serving my country after all.” Arcades smiled and said, “Don’t worry, we don’t need your money. Germany paid us a generous amount when we went over there to drive the NSS out. The boat finally reached the water, and the Prince cycled the boat’s ignition sequence one more time. He flicked the fuel gauge to make it turn just a tad bit more to the full label. The Prince spoke one last time, “Here we go maties. You lads better hold on; this baby drives fast.”
The Prince pushed the throttle up on the boat, and the anthros were now on their way back to the British mainland. Arcades was not sure what to expect when he arrived back in England. He didn’t even know if his stuff was still at the airport that they came in from. However, he would have to worry about that later since he still had to convince CDI to actually help him take down Omega. All the fox could hear was the sound of the engine running and the sound of the wind entering his large ears. The fox looked at the wolf and the cat, and he could see that their fur was also blowing all over the place. The Prince had put on a pair of sunglasses, and Arcades wished that he had his Oakley M2 Frames in order to block out some of the wind that was going right into his eyes. He was now blinking almost every other second.
The fox turned around, and he could see the fort in the distance was shrinking. The fox was wondering if the Omega Foundation thought he was dead. After all, they did end up burning down CDI’s building. Arcades wondered if CDI knew that he was telling the truth. He figured that they should have. He would only find out once he arrived back at the mainland. He was also glad that the Prince was willing to upload his evidence. Otherwise, the fox knew that Omega would be able to censor more and more of the video that he had uploaded to the internet already. He also wondered if there were already people looking into the Omega Foundation like he was. The fox just couldn’t wrap his head around the fact that the Omega Foundation had amassed so many anthros in just one facility alone. He had already seen two of them, and he would be going to Facility Five first as it was much larger than Facility Eleven. He would have to hit Facility Eleven later, but Arcades was not quite sure when he would be able to carry out such a task.
After a decent chunk of time spent boating, the fox could see that the shore was approaching in the distance. The Prince had agreed to drive them to CDI, but the fox would be on his own from there. He was not sure how willing Jason and Bocchino were to help him. The fox remembered how the Prince was holding him at gunpoint when he first arrived, and he was not expecting for the Prince to believe a fox. The fox wished that he could read his Bible, but he remembered that he left it with his stuff when the plane landed, for he did not have a chance to grab it before heading to meet with CDI. All Arcades could do now was figure out what to say to CDI. He hoped he knew the right words to say. Arcades then remembered one part of scripture, “For the Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what ye ought to say.” Arcades prayed that God would teach him what to say.
Chapter 14
A Fox’s Exit
Arcades looked out the window of the car. He was riding in the front passenger seat, and this was the seat that he normally sat on when he was in America. However, vehicles in Britain had the steering wheel on the right since they drove on the left side of the road. The fox found that it was strange to be driving on the left side of the road rather than the right, but he felt that Jason was accustomed to this since he was from Australia. He watched the sky become darker than earlier. It was approaching the evening; However, since it was summer, Arcades still had a couple more hours to go before the sun would completely go down. Jason and Bocchino were sitting in the rear seats of the car. Being a sedan, the vehicle was large enough to accommodate for the entire four man crew. They were driving to Ipswich, and it would take roughly an hour to reach it now, as they had already been driving for a little while.
The drive was somewhat quiet, but the Prince had the radio turned on. However, the radio was set to a very low volume. Arcades would occasionally speak with the human, “You know, the internet is one of the most powerful tools that we have in this day and age.” The Prince agreed, “Of course. The internet is the reason why Sealand is as known as it is. I trust that is h
ow you discovered our nation?” The fox nodded, “Yes. I read up on it on the internet.” The Prince understood, “Makes sense. We didn’t really get all the coverage that we did until the internet became popular.”
After a moment of silence, Arcades spoke again, “I hope that my evidence will spread to as many people as possible. We need people to understand what the Omega Foundation is doing.” The Prince stopped at a stoplight, and he began speaking, “Right, I didn’t even know what in bloody hell the Omega Foundation was supposed to be. They must be really good at covering things up.” Arcades remembered the information that he was able to gather when he and Bocchino searched the unindexed internet, “Yes. We had to use Tor and everything to find out the information.” The Prince nodded. He was familiar with such programs for delving deeper into the internet. The Prince became curious, “How did you guys find out about the Foundation in the first place?”
Arcades tried to figure out the best way to word his explanation. The fox said, “I knew about the Omega Foundation before this all happened. However, I didn’t know much about them. I read a lot of stuff on the web from time to time. A while back, I saw some people were talking about the Omega Foundation. They were speaking about the trafficking that they do, but I didn’t believe it back then. This was also before I had the means to investigate it for myself.” The light changed to green from red, and the Prince began driving again. He asked the fox further, “What prompted you to look into them again? What’s the reason why you broke into their complex in the first place?” Arcades answered the question, “After I was in Germany, we got word that the NSS was in Syria. I wanted to figure out why, so we flew over there. I found a dead NSS member with an Omega Foundation badge. This prompted us to look further into Omega.”
The Prince checked the traffic around him before changing lanes. He spoke again, “Yeah. I remember them mentioning a badge in the video you brought. That must have been the one you took with you out of Syria. Looks about like the NSS was just made by the Omega Foundation it seems.” The fox replied, “Yeah. If that video gets to enough people, then they’ll realize that the attack was done just so they could collect more anthros.” The Prince asked, “Why would they do that? They could just covertly get more anthros like they’ve been doing.” Arcades answered, “I think it is because they want to cause destabilization. Remember what they talked about in the video? They wanted the humans to turn against themselves. The NSS was created to be a Neo-Nazi group, but that was a ploy to cause humans to rise against one another. Part of a reason why they sent them to Syria.”
